Our Team

Jonas Spring

Jonas holds a certificate in landscape design from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Science in Agroecology from the University of British Columbia.He was a teaching assistant and sessional instructor in the Agricultural Sciences Department at UBC. In addition Jonas has been invited to lecture at the Community lecture series at UBC, Humber College School of Environmental Technology and the Ryerson Polytechnic University Landscape Architecture Program. More recently, Jonas has taught Horticultural Sciences at Ryerson Polytechnic University as part of the Landscape Design certificate program.

Jonas has owned and operated Ecoman, a residential landscaping and gardening business in downtown Toronto since 2003. Jonas sits on the board of the Toronto Chapter of the Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association, and is a certified installer of the Xeroflor green roof system.

Fraser Reid-Burdon, BLA

I’m looking forward to joining the Ecoman team this spring. Originally from Montreal, I have my Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph and have been working mainly in large-scale construction management since graduation in 2009.

Travel, healthy food and living, and functional, aesthetic design are huge sources of inspiration for me. I love connecting with the landscape and hope to share and help connect others to it as well.

My real passion is in finding ways to address the issue of “Plant Blindness” and nature deficit disorder (people unable to recognize or ignorant about the vital importance of plants, greenery and landscape ecology within their environments), a fascinating topic I stumbled across while searching for a final year design thesis while at Guelph. Hopefully this can be aligned and contribute to my work at Ecoman while working on some interesting projects and with some great clients!

Gabriele Franke

I am Gabriele, and I have recently joined Ecoman as a gardener. Previously, I have worked as a groundskeeper/gardener at a condo complex bordering on one of Toronto’s ravines. Now, I enjoy putting my ‘creed’ into action at work like I do in my community. I am an experienced horticulturalist who grew up learning from elders since I was a 4-year old child gardener. Back then, in the ‘old country’, old and young worked together to grow our own food and also to sell plants and produce at what we now know as “farmers’ market”.

I have trained as a horticultural technician at Humber College in an apprenticeship program designed by Landscape Ontario, the Ministry of Training and Education and the College. So I am a tradeswoman. Impossible when I was a young female seeking an apprenticeship as a bricklayer or work on the freight ships in my hometown’s harbour. Thanks to Jane Hayes, “Garden Jane”, I also got my training in the foundations of PermaCulture.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience in cooperative work environments while still curious and eager to learn from others. The skill that I value most is actually the ability to observe, and I practise it every single day since it is as essential for my profession and work as it is for community living and peace.

I was fortunate to grow up roaming free in meadows, fields and hedgerows in the company of many playmates and with creatures of all sorts around. Now, I am working to make sure that there will always be children in the woods. We are getting there slowly. At Ecoman, my colleagues and I are restoring urban yards to woodland or prairie habitats that families can use as ecological playgrounds for another generation to enjoy, explore and learn. This is one more important link in a chain of hope. For me, personally, it means that I am earning a living through work that makes sense to me.